If you're in touch with the local news, you must have noticed the big hoo-ha about Wal-Mart and their foray into various neighborhoods around the city.As far as we know and have read, Wal-Mart is in the process of opening "mini-stores" throughout the city. By mini they mean smaller than the standard suburban Wal-Mart's. Anyway, the first store is underway in the West Loop at the Presidential Towers (555 W. Madison) and there has been quite a bit of recent outrage about a similar store coming to Lakeview (Broadway and Surf).
Finally, we just read in the Tribune that Wal-Mart is also looking at a River North location (225 W. Chicago). So it seems like Wal-Mart is aggressively pursuing expansion into the city, so as a blog that focuses on the South Loop, we naturally are left to ponder could the Sloop be next?
At this point, it seems like our neighborhood is quite saturated with big box groceries. Look at Roosevelt road. When Trade Joe's opens (whenever that may be), we will have five different large scale grocery stores servicing the neighborhood within 1 mile of each other (Dominick's, Whole Foods, Target, Jewel and Trader Joe's).
Could our neighborhood support another? Would it be on Roosevelt (which naturally seems to make sense)? Or would it be further south (maybe where the old ickes homes used to be)? Would this be good for the neighborhood? or Would this be bad?
We know people have strong feelings towards Wal-Mart, but let us know your thoughts. We haven't heard any plans about them coming to the Sloop, but it's natural to wonder.
30 comments:
We don't need another big box retailer, especially this company. Walmart passes on significant costs to many of the states and communities where it operates because so many of the company’s Associates and their families participate in publicly-funded health care and other public assistance programs because of lack of affordable health care from Walmart. At the same time, Walmart sends much of its revenue out of local communities, while local businesses keep more consumer dollars in the local economy. Walmart has created a new kind of blight by leaving vacant, abandoned stores throughout the country.
Nothing good comes from Walmart
Maybe nobody in this neighborhood goes out to eat because we have soo many grocery stores to choose from.
Yes, to walmart! But not in the south loop. Perhaps Further South on Michigan.
I would fight tooth and nail to keep a walmart from moving anywhere near Roosevelt!!!!!!!!!!
Good or Bad Walmart does bring jobs and low prices.
Why do people hate Wal-Mart? If it weren't a solid concept, nobody would shop there.
That being said, I don't shop there and don't want one in the sloop since it will attract more zombies to the area.
People hate Walmart because they take more from a neighborhood than they bring. The negative economic effect of Walmart on small towns is well documented. The way they skirt providing health insurance (by hiring mostly part time workers), putting that burden on the tax payers is a well used tool by them and other large corporations. We need to realize the 'true' cost of everything; environmental, societal, etc. The lowest price is not always the best for society. But society sounds a lot like socialist and Faux (Fox) News has deemed that un-American.
While I don't want a Wal-Mart, I fully support bringing a viable, affordable option to Jewel. (I know TJ's says they are coming - but who knows?)
I stopped into Jewel on Monday after work for a few things as I stepped of the L and was appauled!! I cannot believe that store has a license to operate and sell food in this city! It was absolutely disgusting! I attempted to use the restroom along the west wall and was floored to see junk everywhere, a disposable razor in the sink and hair/blood all over the sink and mirror. This is at a grocery store!! Fresh food right in the next aisle! Yet, when you take a look at the type of people who work there, does all of this really come as a shock? There is smoke pouring out of the employee lounge upstairs right into the store! And the "security guards" in the parking lot are a bunch of thugs, who text and talk on their cell phones all shift long, and do nothing about the illegal parking, driving, and loitering that takes place.
Money should flow through the neighborhood as many times as possible to sustain and nurture a neighborhood/city/region. Shopping at the The Wine Shop on Dearborn where the owner lives in the South Loop for instance, while the prices may be a little higher than Binny's, his profits return to the neighborhood through his purchases, taxes, etc. Eating at Blackie's does the same (The owner lives upstairs)
These businesses, and I am sure there are others like them that I am unaware of, are the economic model of neighborhood sustainability.
Support your local businesses!
With most of Wal-Mart's workers earning less than $19,000 a year, a number of community groups and lawmakers have recently teamed up with labor unions in mounting an intensive campaign aimed at prodding Wal-Mart into paying its 1.3 million employees higher wages.
A new group of Wal-Mart critics ran a full-page advertisement on April 20 contending that the company's low pay had forced tens of thousands of its workers to resort to food stamps and Medicaid, costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
So many of its employees need government support that some larger Wal-Mart stores have welfare offices in the store -- for the people who work there. One Congressional study entitled "Everyday Low Wages" estimates that a single Wal-Mart "employing" 200 people would cost taxpayers over $400,000 in added social spending.
WalMart is one of the financial backers of the Pioneer Institute , a "think tank" that is bent on dismantling public education.
@ Anon 11:59:
If it is so bad, people wouldn't work there or shop there. You throw personal responsibility out the window.
You're right, Fox News is holding back socialism... :-/
Sigh...if only more people would notice that modern socialistic societies (e.g. all Scandinavian countries) have a negligible poverty rate AND a higher standard of living compared to us here in the US. Sure they have no dollar billionaires but who cares!
Since when are people concerned with the collective standard of living? One's path to prosperity should not include hitchhikers. Take away incentive to become wealthy and see what happens.
Scandinavian countries are also very different culturally, I'll leave it at that. Crediting Socialism is a more than a stretch.
1. I think its funny that people who defend Walmart don't or won't shop there...
2. Walmart would be detrimental to any hope or our neighborhood getting more ma and pop stores.
3. Trader Joe's IS opening. Otherwise, someone is spending an awful lot of money on building a parking garage for nothing, and the website for TJ's is out of date.
People up north are protesting this because it will become a hardship on the throngs of established small businesses in Lakeview; however, as we have none in the sloop, this would probably go over much better in our hood.
I'm always amused that people hate Walmart, yet welcome Target. Same shit...
@ MarcChicago
"Since when are people concerned with the collective standard of living?"
This is what culturally separates the US from the Scandinavian countries. The wellbeing of all members of a country drives prosperity, not the wealth accumulated by Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump.
Just what our hood needs. Another big box store. As if we didn't already have enough lack of any character in our neighborhood, we now will look even more like Elgin.
"The wellbeing of all members of a country drives prosperity."
Sorry, I'm not plugged into the Matrix. I work my butt off for my own benefit, not that of "all members of a country".
Wealthy people are not villains, as your post implies. The real criminals are those living off our government through entitlement programs and having babies who grow up to roam our city like feral cats.
Yes, I understand that you only care about yourself. And with this worldview you will continue seeing poverty amongst minorities in big American cities. But for you this is of course not an issue. Living off the government through entitlement programs is not a sustainable, or desirable, future, we all agree on that. To argue that these people are freeloaders and deserve to be left to die does not solve anything. To remove the "freeloading" negative part from the budget should be in everyone's interest, not just the "un-American" ones of us.
I am not implying that wealthy people are villains, you are by demonstration. However, the philanthropic work by e.g the Gates family to reduce extreme poverty in the US is fantastic.
As for Walmart I don't want them in the South Loop either however they bring lower prices to the area they serve. Amazing how many union people flock to shop there….walk the parking lot, look at all the union bumper stickers.. Lower prices benefit the shopping public, raising the standard of living. Think of the single parents and low income people. People, you have options, don't like don't shop there!
If you don't like the low wages they pay don't make it a career. The hours work for many people going to school in search of better career or a part time job.
I'm so tired of YOU brain washed people promoting socialism. WTH! Hard work goes along way. Your poor choices and lazy work habits are not my problem. Under socialism your standard of living goes up while mine goes down… WHY? Because you feed off my hard work and other like me, You're parasites.
If Walmart does open in the South Loop I'll have my camera ready! THANK GOD FOR FOX NEWS! Telling like it is….without the sugar coating!
Man, Sloopy, you just can't win.... Bring up Wal-Mart and this is what happens. Maybe we should invite Glen Beck over to give us an education on that chalkboard of his...
Who's brainwashed? You will likely never be among the most wealthy in this country, yet you fight on their behalf, in hopes that you will be someday.
And who are the parasites? The current system allows those already wealthy to make much more money from doing nothing (i.e. investing), while paying little to no taxes on their capital gains. This encourages them to monopolize the resources available to create wealth.
If a significant amount of the population continues to fight on their behalf, the very wealthy will continue to shrink in relative number and further consolidate their holdings. Eventually there will be nothing left for you!
Not to mention the fact that their investments often aren't in the greater interest of this country. The endgame of a continued push for corporate welfare over things like infrastructure is a United States that cannot compete in a global economy and its death as a great consumer market.
Good god 9:32, you are a moron.
What can I say, I am a WalMart fanboy. I have connections to 4 major cities and WalMart really delivers value. Chicago and Los Angeles are the exceptions where you have to travel miles to less densely populated areas to shop. The newer SuperCenters are tuned to the local demographic with aisles of specialty foods like Hispanic, Arabic, Asian, etc.
NO NO NO NO, HELLLL NO, No
Walmart for downtown and the northside, keep it in the low
SES areas of the city. IF U BUILD IT THEY WILL COME!!!!!
Walmart works for underdeveloped areas on the south side but not for downtown and the northern areas. If they come I won't support them as I don't target.
All of this righteous indignation is so funny. Build a WalMart in the South Loop and you will see a steady business just like Target. For all the complaint about wages, every business pays the least reasonable wage it can to run its business. For those of you complaining, how much do you pay the janitor, the mail room person, the dog walker, any other for the most part unskilled position? I also get amazed that your indignation should cause me not to have a place to shop of my choosing. I may not like tatoo parlors or Subways, but I don't care if they open one and you want to go there. If they can make a business, good for them. For the most part, the bitter WalMart opponents are just repeating union propaganda - what have the unions done for the industries where they were really big? Steel? Auto? Look around the south side, maybe they also need a WalMart since the unions destroyed all of the jobs on that end of town.
"what have the unions done for the industries where they were really big?"
Done all the work?
NO to WALMART!!!! The South Loop needs to grow into a community where you want to shop, eat and live. We are not there yet. The South Loop is still a little ruff around the edges. We still have a crowd that scares away tourist or people that want to live here or just visit. Look at the walk from Roosevelt area to China Town. It looks like a war zone. We need to make that area desirable to everyone. If you put a Walmart in the South Loop area you basically are killing the charm we need by bringing in a lower class society. We know what crowd Walmart brings in and I don't want that in my area anymore then it is. Also some say union men/women shop at Walmart and you're right. But that's what Walmart does, they force themselves on you until you break. I am union and I can safely say I DO NOT shop at Walmart and never will. If a Walmart goes in my area then I'll move out. No to big box stores including Target!
Anonymous, while I respect your union based right not to shop at WalMart, I don't agree that this gives you the right to keep 10,000 or more other people from exercising their right to shop at one if they wish. No one shops there - they pay the price. If it means you move, then so be it but I doubt there will be a long line of cars waiting to leave. More importantly, while Dearborn II and the original Central Station townhouses might be "quaint", I don't see how 40 or 50 thirty five story buildings built right to the sidewalk line will ever be considered quaint and that is about all that has been built on Michigan, Wabash and State since 1995. I wouldn't want a Walmart at 16th and Wabash or State but down around Cermak where you have access to Cermak, Lakeshore Dr. and the expressways wouldn't bother me. More importantly, I know an awful lot of southsiders and westsiders that would sure like to have jobs that would be created and the tax money would not hurt to keep down my taxes. As best as I can tell, Unions have not exactly been getting minorities or anyone else much in the way of jobs for a long time although they have helped to push a lot of the Illinois and northwest Indiana jobs to the southern states or out of the country.
Unions always talk about not being able to raise a family on Wal-Mart wages. If you work at Wal-Mart, you probably shouldn't be starting a family anyways. It's called personal responsibility.
What about the high school kids and people without families who would like jobs? The glory of capitalism is the self-correcting market, no unions needed.
I understand that Walmart would be good for certain areas, but I don't think it would be good anywhere near downtown. Like I say when you come to a large city, you come to experience the things you can't anywhere else. Food, Shopping and the way of living. Now all of this is my opinion. Yes, you say there are many high rises along Michigan, Wabash and State. But, walk by them. Look at the first floors of many of them. They are abandoned. Why can't we put people in buisiness for themselves in these empty spaces? Instead you put a Walmart in that area and you kill the dream of those spaces ever being filled. Walmart is a store for low-income areas. South Loop is getting out of the habit of being a low-income area. Putting a Walmart in the South Loop would turn back the clock. Now I know we probably would never have a Walmart in the South Loop because of all grocery stores we have. I mean I wouldn't mind if they put one south of Cermak. That would be an area where Walmart would thrive. I work as a Laborer/Union, and I am always out numbered by minorities. So I don't know where you were going with that one. I don't know much about food unions or hotel unions. But I do know in my union Minority hiring is not an issue. Yes some people would love to see a Walmart for work and what not. But facts show that Walmart in an area with small buisiness are affected in a negative way. Walmart is good for areas that need it. A city that thrives off itself doesn't need it. Like I said my opinion. I value your opinion and I love hearing the oppisite side.
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